,1 



PS 

"5507 

I9H 




Bra 




Class E5.3537 



Book 

Copyright N°, 



'^"f 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 




SARA TOBIAS DRUKKER 



A LITERARY 
FIND 



BY 

SARA TOBIAS DRUKKER 

who also wrote under the noms de plume 
" EDWINA ROWE " AND " ALPHA " 



PHILADELPHIA 
PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION BY 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 

1914 



7*o 



>"?{ 
***> 



COPYRIGHT 1914 BY BESS M. DRUKKER 



PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 

AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS 

PHILADELPHIA, U. S. A. 



DEC 31 1914 

CI.A391222 



WELL KNOWING THAT THE MEMORY OF OUR MOTHER 
STILL LIVES IN THE HEARTS AND MINDS OF MANY, 
WE, HER FOUR DAUGHTERS, HAVE EDITED, AS A 
MEMENTO, A FEW OF HER GOLDEN THOUGHTS, 
CONSISTENT WITH HER LIFE AND INSPIRATION 



CONTENTS 



Tribute to a Loving Friend. By Gussie D. Ogdon 6 

An Appreciation. By George M. Hammell 7 

Poem — To-morrow. By George A. Driscoll 10 

SELECTED WRITINGS OF SARA TOBIAS DRUKKER 

Gems 11 

Bashful Sixteen 19 

The Battle of the Sexes 24 

The Ballot the Strongest Weapon of American Defence 26 

On Beauty 30 

Drudgery a Spur 32 

" Give Us This Day Our Daily Newspaper " 33 

An Italian Romance 34 

The Intellectual Buzz-Saw Girl 40 

A Mother's Love 43 

The Political Aristocracy of Sex 43 

The Political Evolution of Woman, or a Biological Scare. ... 46 
Politics is the Business of the People and the Domain of 

Women as Well as Men 50 

The Yiddish Drama 54 



TRIBUTE TO A LOVING FRIEND 

No greater blow can befall us than the loss of a sincere and loyal friend. 
Emerson says, "The only way to have a friend is to be one." 

The death of Mrs. Sara Drukker created a void in friendship's realm 
impossible to describe. In her I found a counsellor ever ready to respond 
to human sympathy, a loving mother and wife, a woman of brilliant intel- 
lect — in short, a woman whose friendship was the highest treasure, staunch, 
true, sincere. 

I recall different instances where we seemed to differ, but the adjust- 
ment of opposite ideas and views brought us closer together. Ours was a 
friendship that could not be severed. Lost treasure, indeed — one that can 
never be replaced. 

As a club woman she could not be excelled. Her interests and labors 
in woman's suffrage are better known by the older suffragists — her en- 
thusiasm knew no bounds, as her time and knowledge were given without 
limitations to the progress of the cause so close to her heart. I miss her 
and mourn her loss. 

Gussie D. Ogdon. 



SARA TOBIAS DRUKKER 

AN APPRECIATION 

BY 

GEORGE M. HAMMELL 

It is significant that Sara Tobias Drukker, a 
daughter of Israel, owed the determining influences 
of her career as a daughter of America to the 
teachings of Felix Adler, the Hebrew, who, in- 
heriting the moral impulse of Israel's prophets, 
dedicated himself to the realization of their social 
ideals. Always proud of her descent, Mrs. Drukker 
was not less a daughter of Israel that she recog- 
nized in such women as Lucretia Mott, the Quaker, 
and Phoebe Cousins fit guides of her conduct: she 
followed them in that great Socio-political reform 
which has as its goal the recognition of woman- 
hood's inherent right to exercise all the functions 
of citizenship. For thirty years she never wavered 
in her advocacy of Votes for Women, contributing 
articles to the " American Jewess," " Womankind" 
and the "American Israelite," as well as to the 
secular press, and organizing clubs of her com- 
panions in political opinion for the purpose of 
co-operative propaganda. This incessant activity, 
private as well as public, was the product of a 

7 



8 A LITERARY FIND 

peculiar passion for equity, justice and truth, which 
distinguished her in every circle in which she 
moved and compelled attention to the great reform 
which she propagated. She did not write for an 
exclusive circle nor did she employ her executive 
powers, as she might have done, in her own class: 
she broke through all barriers and, outside of her 
ancient church, found congenial fellowship with 
those who could not accept her religious creeds. 
"In season and out of season" she was always an 
exponent of the principles of Equal Suffrage and 
of all that is involved in those principles, for she 
was as eager in defence of equal economic and 
industrial rights as of political and civil rights. 

She possessed, along with an intense love of 
moral truth and beauty, the literary sense which 
seeks expression in fittest phrase and wide-ranged 
discussion of vital themes. The contents of this 
commemorative volume will exhibit the wide scope 
of her interests and the versatility of her qualities 
as a writer. 

Born in New York, July 31, 1852, and resident 
of St. Louis for a decade or more after her marriage, 
Mrs. Drukker's life for more than a quarter of a 
century was spent in Cincinnati. Here she as- 
sisted in organizing the Twentieth Century Club, 
of which she became President, and later the 
Susan B. Anthony Club. Through these asso- 
ciations she projected herself with her enthusiastic 



SARA TOBIAS DRUKKER 9 

devotion into the higher life of a very conservative 
city, and became distinguished for personal service 
even among the distinguished women of the local 
movement. 

She was also a member of the Woman's Press 
Club, the Council of Jewish Women, the Indo- 
American League, and Chairman of the Board of 
Jewish Consumptive Relief Society. 

The multiplicity of these public interests con- 
tributed to the culture of her life as a wife, sister, 
mother. Her devotion to the beautiful home in 
Avondale from which she went away one day, never 
to return, was as conspicuous as her absorption in 
the large movements which commanded her con- 
secration. It seemed as if she felt that because 
she was consecrated to the service of Society and 
the State, she should reconsecrate herself, day by 
day, to the household of which she was the heart. 

Once, on a summer evening, I was guest at her 
home. She led me from room to room, showing 
their beauties — to the little garden graced with 
tree, rockery, pergola and vine — as enthusiastic 
in love of her home, as if, beyond its doors, she 
knew nothing of the "American Spirit" or "Politi- 
cal Equality" or the tangled affairs of a Woman's 
Suffrage Club. 

She realized the ideal of the woman who because 
she is a mother is also a Citizen in full exercise of 
civil rights. 



10 A LITERARY FIND 

TO-MORROW 

By GEORGE A. DRISCOLL 

As the sunflower droops its head in the twilight 

of day, 
To repose in the starry mantle of night, 
So does the spirit of Sara T. Drukker partake of 

the gray 
Of the light to journey anon and anon. 
But with the break of day the Semper Fidelis 

casting its ray 
On the flower forlorn will reflect nature's beauty 

in tone. 
And as the day follows night, and night convoys 

day, 
So shall the righteous not live astray, 
For justice and mercy, and benevolence too, 
Will hear of her knowledge and power, 
As she has not gone as the zephyr of yore, 
Since she has returned to abide and to be, 
Like the sun and the flower, with the light of 

To-morrow. 



THE SELECTED WRITINGS OF 
SARA TOBIAS DRUKKER 

GEMS 

Unseen results are sometimes the greatest. One's 
leisure hour is often the most profitable. There is 
no music in a rest, but there is the making of music 
in it, says Ruskin. 

The world's advance will be along the line of 
wider sympathies : they most deserve the crown of 
approval whose sympathies have embraced all hu- 
manity. For, ' ' They are slaves most base whose love 
of right is for themselves and not for all the race." 

Live and yearn. 

Where there's a frill there's a fray. 

Count him lucky who cannot do all the things 
he would do in life, for the higher power who 
planned the universe, planned things on a higher 
plane than we do for ourselves and sends what is 
best for our development. I firmly believe that 
everything happens in life as it ought to happen 
and that harmony is misinterpreted because it 
seems to be discord. But don't fret and fritter 
your life away if all does not turn out as you 
planned it would. 

Adjust the life currents more accurately and the 
vibrations will respond accordingly. 

11 



12 A LITERARY FIND 

In every human breast there is a spark of the 
divine, so there would be a responsive feeling in 
every soul no matter how insignificant if we but 
touched the harmonious chord. 

He is true to man who is true to himself and 
sees God and sunshine in everything. 

God sent me motherhood, noble and strong, 
And all sadness is lost in my lullaby song. 

When each man learns to be a law unto himself 
and knows his limitations, how to conserve his 
energy and how to expend his brain force profitably, 
then, and not till then, has he learned the soul's 
economy. 

Outward things are seldom what they seem to be, 
Hidden streams are flowing ever, shaping destiny. 

If women's clubs have taught but these two things 
to women, how to endure with good humor the 
defeat of their cherished opinions, and to have 
discovered that there may be another woman on 
earth besides herself who has something to say 
worth listening to, they have fulfilled a noble 
mission, and have therefore a valid excuse for 
their existence. 

Listening to another's troubles makes one forget 
his own. 

We see results but we do not know how they 
are brought about, therefore, the danger of measur- 



GEMS 13 

ing a man's purpose by the immediate and tangible 
results achieved. 

First plan your work, then work your plans. 
Thought before it became action has been lived 
over many times in the mind. 

The failure in a great object downs none so 
hopelessly as the man who has not been taught 
this philosophy, that the great omnipotent prin- 
ciple of the universe governs him and all his 
relations to man. 

Every human being is an individual unto him- 
self and should strive to be a law unto himself. 

Let us grow to the needs of the hour. 

Let us grow in wisdom, knowledge and power, 
give to the world the best we have, and rejoice in 
the use of the best the world has. 

The world needs ragtime as much as it needs 
hallelujah. 

He is wise who in the struggle to live learns 
how to live. 

There is a certain satisfaction in deserving 
success, while the getting of it is largely a matter 
of luck. 

Talk health, Madam, not " dress, domestics 
and diseases." Why harp on the worst things in 
this life? Rather talk of our best gifts and count 
the sunny sides of existence. Sometimes all we 



14 A LITERARY FIND 

need do to brighten our homes is to raise the shades 
a little higher. Let in the sunshine and the soul 
shadows will disappear. If we but learn how to 
adjust our forces we have the power of making 
life just what we will. The superb Emerson says 
you get out of life exactly what you put into it. 
Try putting less sombreness and more highlights 
into e very-day existence. 

'Tis the hard knocks and struggles in the world 
which strengthen us. Man's hindrances and 
obstacles are ofttimes God's opportunities. 

Goodness is in the world whether God is or is 
not. You owe it to your children, whether agnos- 
tic, atheist, or rationalist, to give them if not 
religion then ethical training. In the absence of 
that childlike truth in what we designate God, 
teach the children righteousness by the practice 
of right for its own sake and that not to obey 
the higher impulses and finest instincts is to commit 
character suicide. 

The best that life offers is none too good for 
him who strives, but it depends upon what we 
think is the best; best and worst are but relative 
terms. 

Our bitterest disappointments are ofttimes bless- 
ings in disguise. 

Let us forget as far as possible the ugly things 
about the yesterdays and look forward to the good 



GEMS 15 

things in the to-morrows. As the clock ticks once 
every second the heart beats once every minute, 
so life is lived hour by hour, day by day. Let 
each breath bring new inspiration, new life. 

Would'st thou be happy for a day, then day- 
dream in peace. Enjoy the castles in the air thy 
soul hath fashioned and over whose doors this 
legend should be written: 

Let all who enter here leave care behind, 

for say what one will, care and worry are the 
mental microbes which beset us on all sides. The 
only way to steer clear of the physical microbe 
is to safeguard against it by making our organs 
and body so healthy that the microbism has not 
a living chance. So in the ordering of our mental 
lives let us be resourceful : have our brains stored 
with gems of Thought and treasures which the 
wisdom of the ages has given to the world. But 
be careful, beware of adopting what Ruskin calls 
the houses built without hands for one's souls to 
live in. 

The readiness and willingness of a man to bear 
abuse in the public interest is the test of his 
capacity for public life. 

I have a tender spot for the unsuccessful man. 
While nothing succeeds like success, nothing fails 
like failure. The world bows to those who have 



16 A LITERARY FIND 

won its approval, but is forgetful of those who 
have put forth their best endeavors and failed to 
hit the target. 

Human sorrows and griefs are often God's 
blessings in disguise. 

Let us grow to the needs of the hour. The 
present hour is the greatest. 

The essence of success seems to be not so much 
in knowing what to do as what not to do. 

Vanquished but never humbled, 
Triumphant even in defeat. 

The only failure one ought to fear in this life 
is the failure to develop that larger individuality, 
broader humanity and universal sympathy for the 
race independent of race, sex or creed. 

The failure to cleave to what he feels to be the 
true, the right, and the failure to stand by his 
conviction and best principle — this is ignominious 
failure and what distinguishes the man from the 
puppet. 

The ruling of the male mind is illuminating. 
The woman who could teach and prepare two 
generations of men for citizenship cannot herself 
vote. 

Sorrow and suffering are the melting pots which 
mellow the soul. 

Tears are the showers which fertilize the world. 



GEMS 17 

I count that man has practical wisdom who 
wrote the following: The men who applaud the 
loudest are not those who think the soundest. 

The things that one loves to do, the congenial 
work, does not tire, it rests us. Music, Art, Litera- 
ture are sedatives and stimulants; the love of our 
talents remains with us when all else is forgotten. 
Let us cultivate them. 

No one is more contemptible in my eyes than 
the righteous slave of circumstances who submits 
to a wrong because it has been established by cus- 
tom. The man or woman who submits to what 
he knows is not right commits a greater crime 
than the daring rebel who carries all before him. 

The sadness one sees in the faces of human 
beings is genuine. The joy and happiness is often 
assumed. 

In Memoriam 

Purest of the pure, 

Loved and cherished by all, 

Too good for this cold world, 
She has answered to His call. 

To the memory of my sweet lost little Katy 
who entered into rest January fifth, 1879, after 
one day's severe suffering, then eternal bliss. Let 
us hope her life was unclouded by one sin. Her 
lot if we but knew it was a happy one. Although 
dearer than life to me now that she is gone, I 



18 A LITERARY FIND 

would not wish her back to endure the trials of 

this life. "The living know that they shall die, 

the dead know nothing." 

Her sorrowing mother. 
April 19th. 

Weep not for the flower that's withered and gone; 
Although it was hard to part, it is done. 
Remember that God the flower did claim 
To plant it in Paradise garden again. 

To the memory of my Little Darling Harry. 

I think and think and dream and do the things 
that many dream of, and want to do but never 
can. I am one of those who work while they 
dream, and dream while they work. 

Our darling mother (God Rest Her Soul) was 
a wonder; her mental faculties were so clear, her 
life so active, her death so calm and serene that 
all sting of death was removed. 

Some of the current maxims of life, are: 
"Get rich honestly if you can but get rich." 
"Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing 
well." "This is not an age when one allows his 
energies to stagnate." Live well in your thought 
world and let your mind dwell on some of the 
bright circumstances of life and the beautiful 
which is all around you. Have you ever stopped 
to think of the glories of a western sunset, how 
even the lowliest can enjoy its beauty, — that is, 



BASHFUL SIXTEEN 19 

if they have the innate love of nature and the soul 
to appreciate? They have riches greater than a 
king, for they are monarchs of all they can enjoy. 
Never wait for a cause to be happy, but be happy 
when you can. For 'tis the happiness within us 
that makes the happiness without. Admitting 
for truth's sake that life is strife, and is made up 
of little things: 

Do not let the little worries that we meet each day 
Be a stumbling block in our way. 

Call your worries and troubles experiences and say 
that you would not miss any experiences of life, 
as experiences make fools wise. There is a true 
maxim for you. Let us put forth the effort to 
reach our highest aspirations even though we fail, 
as in all efforts there is groAvth and every wind 
helps him who hath a destined port. 

BASHFUL SIXTEEN 

A lovely spectacle is presented by a group of 
girls numbering sixteen summers. Life's inspira- 
tion and exhilaration is fully enjoyed in their 
innocence and guilelessness. Bright and fair are 
hopes and fortunes. They are at that enviable 
period when castles in the air are built as certain 
realities; fancy paints delightful pictures; the 
world is like a fairy-land full of weird spirits — a 
beautiful creation. This is the season of earth's 



20 A LITERARY FIND 

witcheries and fascinations; when spectres 
and ghosts never come out from their hiding- 
places; the song and the dance are the revels of 
the day, and pleasant dreams the fancies of the 
night. 

Girlhood resembles the bud blossoming into a 
rose's charms, the fragrant leaves resplendent 
with rich hues. The canker worm that may 
devour the petals is concealed; the hand that is to 
pluck it from the parent stem is unknown; no 
creed of belief is recited that it will fade away 
or fall to ashes; that it will ever drop and die. 
What the flower will be, only watching and 
waiting will develop. No one can prophesy what 
the future of these maidens will be. Their 
years may be full of bliss and joy, or they may 
be full of grief and sadness. Who can foretell 
if storm or sunshine will most prevail in 
the firmament of their maturity? Time's great 
clock will only strike the hours and days of the 
revelation. It is well that no human hand can 
lift the veil to peer into the Book of Fate to 
discover what is there registered as the lot of 
womanhood. 

It is a book so perfectly well sealed that a 
glance at its leaves, and a shy peer at the secrets 
it contains, is a sheer impossibility. 

When the time has arrived to disclose its con- 
tents, it is opened widely, and with a loud bang, 



BASHFUL SIXTEEN 21 

and is so plainly and largely written, that all who 
run may read. 

To each of this throng of girls undoubtedly will 
come the story of the heart; each one of them will 
feel love's rapture or misery; for them will be the 
truth or falsity, constancy or estrangement, devo- 
tion or desertion. Some will be touched by passion, 
with its ecstasy and enchantment; others will 
relate the tale of treachery, and the bitter separa- 
tion; the volume of life will be blurred by re- 
gret and anguish, mourning over graves where 
love lies buried deep. It is the will of Fate 
that girlhood should not understand that 
woman's heart and woman's love are often called 
to endure terrible suffering; to shed silent tears 
over wretchedness and weariness; often bankrupt 
in affection, betrayed, deceived, duped in trust; 
holding to her bosom an empty casket, without 
gems or jewels. Women as they will be, they 
will hear a repetition of the trite avowal of 
womanly love; listen with willing ear to sweet, 
tender words; to them will be sworn vows of 
eternal fidelity; the betrothal will be the fulfil- 
ment of wooing; marriage, the test of verity 
and stability. 

As these girls are now gazed upon, young in 
years, fresh and fair, gay and thoughtless, uncon- 
cerned about human ills and mishaps, or the 
mutability of creature happiness, it is cruel that 



22 A LITERARY FIND 

misanthropy should hasten to break the spell of 
delusion, or tell them in mournful numbers of 
trials and tribulations. There are some persons, 
incredible as it may seem, who will be anxious to 
arouse in these girls suspicions and distrust, 
marring youth and joyousness. Keen darts and 
severe wounds will pierce soon enough tender 
emotions. If existence is to be one long ache, 
with sharp cries, momentary freedom should 
be left unmolested by wretched forebodings. 
Girls should have no black pall thrown over 
them by the hand of disappointed murmurers. 
It is far better for the springtime of woman 
to look forward to no autumn frosts or 
winter's snows; they are only in the distance, 
travelling on the chariot wheels of time at a 
rapid pace. 

It is natural that girlhood should not attend 
any of the dull rehearsals of the veteran 
actors, who have played out their comedy and 
tragedy on the stage of life. Whether our lasses 
will pass a short sojourn or a long pilgrim- 
age on earth's swards, the interested student 
cannot learn; the chart of information 
and knowledge is closed against curious 
inquirers: it is kept rolled up against vain 
investigations. 

Among these sprightly girls, with smiles and 
blushes, there may be heroines, ministering angels, 



BASHFUL SIXTEEN 23 

illustrious poetesses, famous authoresses, sisters 
of charity, black-veiled nuns. There may be 
idols, before whose shrine men will constantly 
worship; some may prove society's belles, stars of 
home, angels in the house. 

Some may be born to little else than sorrow, but 
the book is not opened yet, and the decrees of 
Fate cannot and ought not to be anticipated. 

It is not wonderful that girlhood looms up as 
one of nature's peculiar attractions — that it should 
possess uncommon loveliness and fascination for 
the passing multitudes and idle wayfarers. Happy 
girlhood! With an unsullied white sheet spread 
before you, upon which has not been traced 
sorrow or remorse, it would be well if no pen mars 
it by writing an unwomanly record on the open 
page. Separated as these companions will be 
by different paths, some whose way will be 
strewn with flowers, some with thorns, the mem- 
ories of these bright, fleeting years will be the 
dearest and most cherished treasures of by-gone 
days. 

Hail, glorious spring of human life, and 
never-ending happiness to the bashful maiden of 
sixteen! 



24 A LITERARY FIND 



THE BATTLE OF THE SEXES * 

The hardest battle that ever was fought, 

Shall I tell you where and when ? 
On the maps of the world you'll find it not, 

For 'tis fought by the mothers of men. 

Joaquin Miller, the gifted poet who has just 
passed away, sang in tune with the world to-day 
when he penned the above lines years ago. It is 
the work of the world's poets who live on the 
mountain-top of knowledge to foretell and have 
prophetic vision. 

The battle of the sexes is being bravely fought, 
and sad and thrilling as is the spectacle of this 
twentieth-century woman's pageant, it has been 
a live advertisement and the means of attracting 
a great deal of attention to the Suffrage movement, 
for it has brought together women of radical 
sympathies and interests in the furtherance of 
their cause. 

Depend upon it, women will never take a step 
backward, for, when once aroused, they are as 
well fitted as men to take broad views of life and 
the political situation. To-day, as never in the 
world's history, they are being educated along 
these lines and have demonstrated their ability to 
take part in the world's progress, and the wheels 

* From "The Club Woman's Magazine," Cincinnati, Ohio. 



THE BATTLE OF THE SEXES 25 

of progress never revolve backwards. The onus 
probandi will be a little slow, but sure. The three 
"R's" being taught to women — Responsibility, 
Relation, Reverence — are the R's along the right 
line. 

Women will go quite naturally into any armor 
life forces them into. Experience has shown that 
women have argued and pleaded too long for 
things to come to them; they find they must go 
after and get the things they want. The way of 
wide public recognition is harder and slower with- 
out the ballot; they must do twice as much work 
before they attain their end without the ballot as 
they would do if they possessed the vote. In a 
word, the work of a man minus the tools of the 
man. 

Besides, man's profound distrust of woman's 
political influence does not tend to make the rocky 
path she has to travel a bed of roses. Now, what 
is conclusive to ourselves is not always apparent 
to others, so the active propaganda of the woman's 
movement through parades, conventions, and dem- 
onstrations, is the right thing; back of every move- 
ment there must be enthusiasm and action. 

Despite all her drawbacks, there is a changed 
attitude everywhere towards woman. Education, 
tolerance, manners, morals give woman force, and 
force gives woman confidence in her ability to do 
the work demanded. On all sides we hear the 



26 A LITERARY FIND 

now familiar saying, "This is a man's world," but 
the twentieth century is a woman's century. The 
trained college woman, the domestic woman, the 
canary-bird woman, the matinee woman, who 
bring the pure and holy into daily living, are helping 
on this propaganda. The evolution of woman in 
industry and trade and the taking of woman from 
the home into the factory is largely responsible for 
the battle of the sexes. 

THE BALLOT THE STRONGEST WEAPON 
OF AMERICAN DEFENCE * 

In presenting the question of Woman's Suffrage 
we must remember that "it is custom, not reason, 
that we have to face in our struggle for the ballot," 
says Mr. Thomas — the breaking down of the 
walls of prejudice. Where the judgment is weak 
the prejudice is strong. It is worth while to note, 
however, that the agitation for woman's enfran- 
chisement is world wide; that women everywhere 
are aroused and are getting into line for assuming 
their duties of citizenship. The Press, the Pulpit, 
the Stage, the three great educators of the public 
mind, are turning from the opposition and are 
coming over to us. The magazine covers appear 
in radiant colors with "Votes for Women" banners, 

* This article has been published in leaflet form in English, also the 
German translation, and has had a wide circulation throughout the 
State of Ohio. 



THE BALLOT 27 

and editorials on "Signs of the Times." The 
Suffrage movement at last seems to appeal to 
man's reverence and sense of justice, as when civic 
consciousness is touched a more liberal spirit 
follows. If the majority of women do not want 
the ballot the highest type of American women 
do, as well as the highest type of American men 
who look to get the very best results from the use 
of the ballot. 

Finland has given the ballot to her women and 
has denied it to her soldiers, showing that ballots 
and not bullets will decide the important question 
of state in future governments. When women 
vote, the great moral power of the world will be a 
more potent force than the brutal militarism now 
in vogue. Educated women have kept pace in 
the last century with all progressive movements. 
Can anyone be found so conservative as to make 
her take a backward step instead of an advanced 
one? Besides, it is but just that woman has the 
same State rights as man has, for she has to obey 
the law the same as man does and is amenable 
when she breaks the law; therefore, where woman 
fulfils the qualifications which are imposed upon 
a man she should not be excluded from the same 
privileges. Buckle in his " History of Civilization " 
says: "There is no instance on record of any 
class possessing power without abusing it." Re- 
member that since women vote in some form in 



28 A LITERARY FIND 

most every State, the polling places are no longer 
in the saloon, and remember the Suffrage move- 
ment is related to that of higher education. 

To the charges made by the Antis that when 
women vote we will see the worst form of tyranny 
the world has ever known, and that Utah women 
are under Church dominion, we answer, that 
people who have been living in a secluded world 
for century upon century are not able to broaden 
and widen out merely because the law is passed 
that they should. The narrowness from within 
will have come to affect their life without. Women 
who have been crowded into a small space cannot 
expand at once. Character responds to environ- 
ment. Women's opportunities have been limited, 
but responsibility educates like nothing else does. 
The best education for the ballot is the ballot. 
The woman who is so lacking in spirit and self- 
respect that she is willing to be classed with 
criminals, lunatics and imbeciles shows the ener- 
vating influence of disfranchisement. It is the 
voluntary slave that submits to the lash and makes 
the oppressor. This is the clearest proof that the 
Antis need the ballot. 

Woman's domain to-day is as much the indus- 
trial world as it is the home, as one by one woman's 
industries have been taken from her and placed 
in the hands of specialized workers in the shop 
and factories and she has followed it. Every 



THE BALLOT 29 

time a woman does a man's work for less pay 
than a man she shows the need of the ballot to 
adequately protect her and to give her a fairer 
compensation for her labor. "The lack of direct 
political influence constitutes a powerful reason 
why women's wages have been kept at a minimum," 
says Hon. Carroll Wright. Every time a man is 
ousted from his job because a woman can be 
secured for less, it shows woman's need of the 
ballot to protect man industrially. Granted that 
women industrially and socially have many faults, 
a just system will eliminate most of them and the 
others will readjust themselves under an equitable 
government which shall recognize the mother's 
interest as well as the father's. 

Woman's Suffrage is not an experiment — it is a 
proven principle. California has demonstrated 
that and Ohio is safe in following. Since Australia 
and New Zealand have had Woman's Suffrage, it 
has led to the better and more orderly conduct of 
elections and the return of a better class of men. 
Every year adds another victory to this reform 
movement. " Every reform," says the great 
Emerson, "was once only a private opinion." 
One by one the arguments against Woman's 
Suffrage are disappearing, but there are still many 
prejudices, and prejudice has always been the 
great obstacle and stumbling block to progress. 



30 A LITERARY FIND 



ON BEAUTY * 

Sweet are the uses of adversity, and sweet are 
the uses of plainness; though beauty can win 
without effort and gain credit for possessing all 
the virtues, 'tis plainness and want of attraction 
which must cultivate the mental and moral parts. 
The beautiful sister can be as disagreeable and 
unamiable as possible at home, knowing, in the 
world, her beauty will prevail and carry her 
through. She does not need to spoil her bright 
eyes reading, for do they not speak? Yes, they 
are volumes in themselves. But 'tis the homely 
and thick-skinned sister that wears the best. 
Therefore, my brothers, choose your brides as the 
" Vicar of Wakefield" says his wife chose her 
wedding gown, for its lasting qualities; but when 
you want to have her portrait painted, likewise 
imitate him and endow it with every quality which 
you wish her to possess. 'Tis usually the plainer 
sister that is most pleasing in manner. The hard 
school of personal experience has taught her that 
the world exacts a great deal of plain-looking 
women; unless they are gracious and entertaining 
they are so easily passed by for the fairer sisters. 

* "Beauty" appeared in "Womankind," a monthly magazine pub- 
lished in New York and Springfield, Ohio, of which Mrs. Drukker was 
assistant editor. 



ON BEAUTY 31 

As " Vanity Fair" says: "It is the charming face 
that creates sympathy in the hearts of men." 

Beauty is of three kinds, mental, moral and 
physical. The beauty of mind, the beauty of soul 
and the beauty of face and form. Now if the 
goddess of grace lends her wand, a plain-featured 
woman is transformed into an elegant creature, 
with dainty outlines and curves more seductive 
than any amount of mere facial beauty, unless 
it consists in fine, soulful eyes. Here I would say 
that it is usually to the plain face to which the 
expressive eye belongs, for the eye is the index of 
the mind, and the cultivation that has gone on in 
the intellect is as surely seen through that organ 
as though seen in a mirror. There must be some- 
thing almost spirituelle in a nature that brings 
out the good points in others, that believes in 
goodness, truth and love, and the better realms 
where there is nothing coarse and where the soul 
has time to indulge its most sublime emotions, 
to think that the sky looks blue, the trees green, 
to be more alive to the joys of the song-bird, to 
the loveliness of the flowers, to the fragrance of 
the trees, the balminess of the country. 

'Tis surprising, with so much in the world to 
enjoy, how little some get out of this life, and 'tis 
not those who have the most who enjoy the most, 
for those who have everything have nothing if 
they lack the capacity for enjoyment. The higher 



32 A LITERARY FIND 

enjoyment is to feel the pulse thrill as some beau- 
tiful melody is wafted to you, to look on a lovely 
sunset and think how sweet is life and the world. 
I thank my Creator that I live. A being must 
have an artistic soul to enjoy these things, and 
every nature that has a responsive feeling is an 
artistic one. To see vice, misery and sorrow and 
make no effort to alleviate it, to hear a pitiful tale 
unmoved, to think only of personal salvation and 
neglect the very things that do save, to fail to 
develop those faculties with which we are endowed, 
is to live one's life on a low plane and have a very 
unsatisfactory existence. 

DRUDGERY A SPUR * 

The man who is well equipped by training for 
life's battle need have no fear; he can smile at all 
the storms which buffet him, and when the time 
arrives for success he will fit nicely into the niche 
which Fate has reserved for him. 

We must remember that we are the women of 
transition between the women of yesterday and 
the women of to-morrow. We cannot analyze, 
but we see the symptoms in the aroused conscience, 
the awakened moral conscience of progressive 
womanhood. 

The work which is congenial to us, such as Art, 
Music, Literature and Science, does not tire, it 

* Written for "The Club Woman's Magazine," December, 1913. 



GIVE US OUR DAILY NEWSPAPER 33 

rests us. One seems to gather strength as one 
goes along, because they are sedatives not irritants. 
Hammer away at the drudgery which prepares 
one to gather the roses later on in life. 

Get well started in congenial work, and the 
inspiration will come and the satisfaction which 
work well accomplished always brings will be yours. 
Canova lived in his studio, Voltaire lived in his 
study. Edison lives in his laboratory. They did 
not waste all their forces in daily living but directed 
their energy to the work they loved best in life. 

"GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY 
NEWSPAPER" 

Professor Judson, of the University of 
Chicago, says that the newspaper is as great an 
educator as the college. This is a broad statement, 
even for a Chicago professor, but it certainly has 
foundation in fact. The daily papers give us the 
best things that are going the rounds of the world. 
In fact, so swift through rapid transit has become 
every medium of intelligence from one end of the 
world to the other that the daily paper is favorably 
circumstanced for extracting the best essentials of 
the world's history for the day, and the world's 
thought upon passing events has been brought 
to such a high state of development, that through 
its medium more than through books we are 
enabled to keep pace with the march of events. 



34 A LITERARY FIND 

The views of the statesman upon the political 
outlook, the theories of scientific thinkers, the 
latest electrical appliances, the theologian on 
advanced reform, new thought in its modern 
application, the aeroplane's contemplated visit to 
Mars, the marvels of wireless telegraphy, the 
discovery of the north pole, the Cook-Peary con- 
troversy, all get a hearing in its cosmopolitan page. 
While theorists, social reformers, students of 
economics, dreamers, and thinkers all contribute 
to its columns, the newspapers are the assimilators 
of the many elements that make up the grand 
whole. Long live the newspapers! 

AN ITALIAN ROMANCE 

I 

Laugh, and the world laughs with you, 

Weep, and you weep alone, 
The sad old earth must borrow its mirth 

But has trouble enough of its own. 

"So wrote one poet, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, and 
wrote truly/' mused Stephen Tangle wood, as he 
closed the book of poems and arose from the com- 
fortable arm-chair and descended the broad steps 
of the piazza. The balmy refreshing air of Fern 
Bank aroused the poetical in his soul. He was a 
type of man physically that most women admire, 
with the perfect form of an Apollo, the piercing 
black, but not unkindly eye, the features irregular 



AN ITALIAN ROMANCE 35 

but expressive of character. He was not, strictly 
speaking, a handsome man, but an eminently 
interesting one, with a face to which a soul belongs, 
and a personality which stood out strongly. 
Stephen Tanglewood was always a dreamer, and 
when alone in his Southern home he would wend 
his way to the orchard, with no other companion- 
ship than the cows, and, lying upon the grass, 
turn his eyes heavenward, seeing his dreams and 
his creations realized in the fantastic and moving 
clouds. 

How delightful is the imagination when the 
wind revels in its own workings and a host of 
shadowy and sweet recollections steal upon us! 
The only child of a wealthy planter, he was a 
cultivated and educated gentleman who would 
have had his hands full looking after his rentals 
and estates, but he employed an agent for the 
business affairs of life and betook himself North 
and West to enter into railroad speculations, for, 
like all rational beings with a sentimental side to his 
nature, he would rather invite his soul and loaf. 
"Why," he asked himself, "am I so mortally lazy? 
Why do I sigh for Italian skies, and, why always 
the cry, Oh Italia, Italia! This is riot the Ameri- 
can spirit. That is work, work and love your 
work, and look for material prosperity. Methinks 
I have a streak of Italian romance in my nature — 
my mother, but is she not a New England woman, 



36 A LITERARY FIND 

and as gentle, lovable and practical as New England 
mothers are? Can it be" (and a look of deep 
perplexity crossed his face) "that I am not my 
mother's son? My worthy sire spent some years 
in Italy, perhaps I have inherited his tastes; but 
certain it is that from my mother where I expected 
to find sympathy with every thought and emotion, 
I never found myself understood. Hence my 
diffidence with women and a life of single blessed- 
ness. My youth was a burden to me, consumed 
by that mad suspense, that ambition to excel — to 
surprise the world. With more mature years 
comes self-knowledge which teaches us to bear the 
ills of life, its joys, hopes, fears and calamities. 
Life is a kind of oriel window, when the sun shines 
upon it, it displays its beautiful prismatic colors, 
but in the cold and bleak morning, like the dark 
and turbulent period of life, the oriel window has 
a gloomy aspect." 

II 

What must love be in such a heart, 
All passion's fiery depths concealing, 

Which has in its minutest part 

More than another's whole of feeling. 

— L. E. L. 

"Oh Italia, land of the olive and vine, once a 
rich glowing land of promise!" 

There was a stranger sought that sunny clime, 
and the black eyes of a peasant girl enchanted 



AN ITALIAN ROMANCE 37 

him. They met and loved and sealed with arms 
and kisses a love born of excess, of passion, not 
the lasting full love of lofty sentiment. 

Stephena Carassa left her native shore, not as a 
bride who leaves her parents' threshold, with kind 
words to cheer her native modesty and the parental 
blessings, but fleeing by night, as a culprit does, 
watched by one All-Seeing Eye; she thought not 
of her sweet mountain home nor aged parents 
sorrow — such love takes not thought for to-morrow. 

She arrived in New York, a stranger in this 
land, with not even a hope that her fair name 
remain unsullied. Familiar faces, there were none 
to look upon, their speech was strange and she 
wished once more to see the green fields of Italy 
and die. She grew melancholy. They quarrelled, 
he soon tired of Italian love, and the story is one 
as old as the hills. Little Stephen was born, and 
the father had a tender feeling for this child of 
love. The mother agreed to a separation and 
parted, for the child's good, with the boy, who was 
dearer to her than life itself. Mr. Tanglewood, 
whose troth was plighted to his cousin in New 
England, married her and took the little Stephen 
into his household. She alone knew of the child's 
relation and well did she guard the secret. 

The restless youth is now a man of more mature 
years; change of time has not brought change of 
thought, for there was always a great aching void 



38 A LITERARY FIND 

at his heart. The heart depressed or hardened by 
intercourse with the world turns with affectionate 
delight to its early dreams, and Stephen thought 
more and more of Italy. 

"By all that's good!" thought he, "this land 
where we have twenty-seven kinds of weather in 
one morning has never satisfied my soul; I'll take 
a trip to Europe." The next day found him in 
New York. "Here, boy, give me a Herald, 1 '' said 
he. Under the amusement heading he read, 
"'Koster & Bial's concert hall; Italian dancer, 
Stephena Carassa.' Ah, that's Italian sure 
enough! Old boy, we'll take in that concert 
to-night." 

Eight o'clock found Stephen among the audience 
at Koster & Bial's. Stephena Carassa appeared, 
a woman of fairy-like proportions, of sad but sweet 
countenance. Flowers and smiles greet her as she 
"trips the light fantastic toe." The dance is a 
revelation to Stephen. The woman is beautiful, 
without any trace of gross materialism. The 
graceful dancer's charming method is without any 
appeal to the coarser senses; it revealed a poetic 
insight, the slender figure waving like a lily on the 
stem, equally removed from all the studied grace 
of the old school and from the voluptuous abandon 
of the dance of Spain. 

Stephen sits like one in a dream. Who is this 
woman? "Williamson, come! I must see her, 



AN ITALIAN ROMANCE 39 

speak with her. You know her. Introduce me at 
once. She exerts a strange influence over me!" 

"Well, Tanglewood, old boy, I am really glad 
to see you are a creature of flesh and blood. You 
were so like a statue during the dance that I lost 
all hope of moving you." So, locking his arm in 
Stephen's they sauntered behind the scenes. 
"Madame Carassa: My friend, Mr. Tanglewood!" 
The dancer gave one piercing shriek and fainted 
away. Restoratives were applied, the windows 
opened, and in a few moments the lady revived. 
"Bring the gentleman here; I would converse 
with him. What was your father's name?" "Peter 
Tanglewood." "Ah! the same," she murmured. 
"Ah, Stephen, look at me. Does not your own 
heart tell you who I am?" "Merciful Father," 
cried he, "can it be that you are that ideal mother 
of whom my day dreams are? Is it not strange, 
nay providential, our sudden meeting?" 

"Not more strange nor romantic than I could 
wish," she replied as she wept over him. "Oh, 
my child; my boy! What pleasure I missed in 
not rearing you. He took you from me, but, God 
be thanked, it was his hand which sent you here." 
"But, mother, how came you to adopt the stage 
as a profession?" "Is not the Italian woman fond 
of art; is she not also sentimental and modest? 
My dancing charmed your father, and when I 
found myself dependent on my own exertions, 



40 A LITERARY FIND 

this suggested itself. When he took you to educate 
I had no longer any claim to his support. Besides 
I love my art." " Yes, mother, and you have made 
it fairly divine." "Then I trust I have atoned 
for my sin; but I was more sinned against than 
sinning. The world which forgives any vices or 
sin in a man is ready to stone a woman for the 
first indiscretion." 

THE INTELLECTUAL BUZZ-SAW GIRL 

I just met Mrs. Beverly Allison, and she looked 
perfectly gorgeous in that new gown of hers, so 
swell, you know, the very latest "fantasie" from 
"Yurrop," one of the priceless, I mean worthless, 
creations that we rave over. It was a marvellous 
thing in apple green and light pink. Oh dear, if 
Prince Charming would only hurry and come 
along! Do you know a plain woman is often 
vainer than a pretty one? It is all in the tempera- 
ment, you know. Now ma says if only I could 
fascinate a little I would make a brilliant match. 
Going into society isn't just what it is cracked up 
to be, not so pleasant as it seems. It is just a 
business. How can a girl enjoy herself to her 
heart's content when she must worry about her 
programme being filled or get an invitation to 
supper ? Besides she knows ma is watching every- 
thing from the corners of her eyes and pa has 
already cautioned her about the ineligible men. 



THE INTELLECTUAL BUZZ-SAW GIRL 41 

Isn't it funny that those who are marriageable are 
not eligible, and those who are eligible are not mar- 
riageable? Then the young men are fond of declar- 
ing that they can't afford to marry, and spend more 
in individual gratification than would support a 
wife in comfort. Curious paradox! And young 
girls still have hearts and are affectionate. There 
is Algernon Ferguson. What girl of seventeen, well 
read in poetry and romance, would refuse such a 
miracle of chivalry and perfection ? I think Florence 
was quite lucky to get him, but then she has a large 
bank account. He laughingly says, that when he 
first met her, he thought her a treasure, but now 
she is his treasurer. 

What makes pa so fond of money? He is always 
telling ma that money is the engine which pushes 
work, a passport to good society and that the only 
two things it will not buy are Heaven and happi- 
ness. They are of minor importance in pa's 
philosophy. Now ma thinks differently. She 
says, "Get married, rich if you can, but get mar- 
ried." It suggests strong-mindedness to say that 
marriage should not be the end and aim of a 
woman's existence, but like the choice of an avo- 
cation with men. Let me whisper a little secret. 
I am of an ardent temperament. I rather believe 
in elective affinities, but don't let ma hear me say 
that or she would think like the old lady, "that 
they were the pesky things in the dictionary that 



42 A LITERARY FIND 

et up the bookmarks." Now I believe in the 
higher regions of the soul and that a young man 
whose moral character is not good is not capable 
of lofty sentiment. Pa says that is all poppy- 
cock, just blink, blank, blonk! Pa has seen a 
great deal of the seamy side of life and says a 
quiet, rational young man will be a gay, old one. 
Then he tells the old story about a young man and 
his wild oats. 

William Penn — how I do love that grand old 
Quaker — says, "Marry for love, but be sure to 
love what is lovely." He had sentiment in his 
make-up. Pa is material. He says there is only 
one friend in the world, that is your pocket-book. 
Ma says he should add his Maker. Pa got angry 
then and spit out his true feelings. "Sophie," says 
he, "when a man supposed to be your friend 
calls you a dirty cur, a political tramp, and a 
personal coward, do you think he is a friend of 
yours?" Ma, I know, was sorry she spoke and 
knew that pa was in no humor to give her a couple 
of dollars for flowers for Mrs. Henderson's tea. Ma 
said in her sainted voice, "My dear, what little 
things depress and excite you ! Suppose a man does 
tell you to go to that very warm place of which you 
speak and whose name does not look well in print, 
you do not need to get up and go. If he calls 
you a name, it does not make you that creature, 
but is merely an exposition of his character." 



POLITICAL ARISTOCRACY OF SEX 43 

The elasticity of pa's nature is wonderful. 
These few words from ma acted like a charm, and 
she got her flowers. I give ma a great deal of 
credit for knowing so well how to manage pa. 
But she has made it her life-long study, never 
having attempted to learn another thing in all 
her wedded life. 

Just think of the change! Now women of 40 
enter colleges to take up a new study. Women 
used to think their lives behind them at 40, rather 
than ahead. Nowadays it's just middle life, like 
man's. And I am glad women are no longer 
estimated like horses, for their splendid parts, 
but for their achievements and energy. 

A MOTHER'S LOVE 

The birds may leave their nestled young, 

The sun may cease to shine above, 
Man may forget his native tongue, 

But who can change a mother's love? 
The flowers may withhold their bloom 

And gentleness forsake the dove ; 
Man may forget his native tongue, 

But changeless is a mother's love. 

THE POLITICAL ARISTOCRACY OF SEX 

All just governments derive their just power 
from the consent of the governed. Women are 
governed. Taxation without representation is 



44 A LITERARY FIND 

tyranny. Women are taxed. Here is a direct 
violation of two of the fundamental principles of 
our government, as one-half of the population, 
women, are governed without their consent and 
have no voice in the making of the laws which 
they must obey. A trampling upon the " Declara- 
tion of Independence." What brought about the 
revolution of our forefathers? Another revolution 
must come which shall overthrow the old unjust 
system and give us a new, righteous one. 

The divine right of kings has been wiped out 
by blood. The divine right of sex remains. This 
unequal, ethical standard has been most pernicious 
to our sons and unjust to our daughters. Man- 
made laws have given us two codes of morals. 
One for our sons, another for our daughters. 
What is wrong for the woman cannot be right for 
the man. Besides, who gave man the right, who 
gave anybody the right to place or keep women 
in political serfdom? "What right has anybody 
to sit still in a free country and let a self-appointed 
class look after their safety?" — Mark Twain. 
Who possesses the right to confer or withhold 
suffrage? Are men a divinely appointed class? 

Emancipation from physical slavery has been 
granted. Emancipation from sex and industrial 
training must follow. The industrial emancipation 
of woman pleads for equal pay for equal work 
andj the same opportunities as man has had to 



POLITICAL ARISTOCRACY OF SEX 45 

develop herself as she may see fit. Legislation is 
always in favor of the legislating class, and we 
protest against a political aristocracy of sex. 

There is no sex in citizenship. And women are 
citizens by virtue of being taxpayers. She is 
helping to pay off the war-tax to-day, but when 
it comes to having a vote in deciding how much 
that war-tax shall be she is a voiceless puppet. 
To the old, fossilized arguments that when the 
majority of women ask for the ballot they will 
get it, we answer: Did the majority of Hawaiian 
men ask for the ballot? Did a majority of the 
Porto Ricans ask for the ballot? Was universal 
male suffrage embodied in the new Cuban Consti- 
tution because a majority of the men petitioned 
for it? No, it is only when thinking women ask 
for that which is theirs by divine right these 
flimsy protests and platitudes are advanced. 

When woman to-day asks for the ballot for the 
industrial and economic independence of the sex 
she is sometimes answered that women cannot 
fight, therefore cannot vote. Scientists tell us 
that man has advanced from the brute state of 
existence to the high altruism of moral power; 
that the underlying motive power of the world 
was not physical but mental and moral force; 
that mind controls matter. Ballots, we know, 
are more powerful than bullets. Hence, a Glad- 
stone was greater than a Cromwell. Ohio is one 



46 A LITERARY FIND 

of the States where father and mother are not 
co-guardian. It is one of the States in which the 
law allows the father to appoint by will a guardian 
for a child unborn. It is a State where women 
cannot be notary publics, cannot be trustees of 
public institutions where women and children are 
confined.* Human rights before all laws and 
constitution. 

Men govern themselves by self-made and self- 
approved laws of the land. But all man-made 
laws and customs ignore woman's competency for 
responsible positions. Educate, elevate, organize, 
and hasten the day when a larger, fuller life will 
come to woman. 

THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION OF WOMAN, 
OR A BIOLOGICAL SCARE f 

In woman's advance from a semi-state of civil- 
ization to the higher plane of intellectual existence 
the moral and elevating faculties of her brain have 
predominated and become self-acting in the law 
of rational development. The gradual repudiation 
of the old standards and system which hampered 
and dwarfed the powers of man and woman in 
the past, and limited the scope of the individual, 
indicates the broader, nobler, and more practical 

* In 1913 Ohio adopted a constitutional amendment allowing women 
to be appointed to any office having control over women and children. 
t From "The Club Woman's Magazine," Cincinnati, Ohio. 



POLITICAL EVOLUTION OF WOMAN 47 

view of life in considering its educational, indus- 
trial, and civic problems. The advance of civiliza- 
tion means the growth of altruism, the progress 
which implies the broadening of the sympathies 
in the hearts and souls of men, and always, it can- 
not be too strongly emphasized, the highest 
development comes from within, and not from 
without. 

In the dawn of civilization, women did not so 
readily as to-day resent the tyranny which sought 
to dominate them. I need hardly say the sex is 
not as long-suffering as it used to be, and to-day 
the voting sex do not monopolize all of the lime- 
light, for women have become aroused to the 
importance of things which concern them. Poli- 
ticians are beginning to realize that a way must 
be found to solve the social and political problems 
that are pressing upon them. This age has been 
designated by a recent writer as "the age of social 
and political unrest the world over, and many 
would describe it as the age of the people." 

The classic writers of ye olden times said, 
" Female perfection consists in being a woman, 
not a logician, orator, or politician, and general 
manager of the world's affairs, as every man fears 
a He-woman, but cleaves to a Desdemona or 
Ophelia." There are men to-day, also, who share 
this opinion and feel that the world to-day would 
lose, not gain, by the ballot being conferred upon 



48 A LITERARY FIND 

her. As a student of events which are now shaping 
political history, I must admit the great advance 
women have made during the past quarter of a 
century, has been made without the vote, because 
woman has begun to realize more and more her 
responsibility and ability to take care of herself. 
She has begun to assert her independence, because 
the agitation for the ballot, like the sword of 
Damocles, has hung over her head. Secondly, the 
mistaken gallantry, which has kept women for 
ages in unwilling idleness and dependence, has 
yielded to the more practical view of duty and 
progress. This twentieth century views life from 
different angles. Men are beginning to see how 
much more advantageous it is for seven millions 
of women, in the United States alone, to be able 
to earn their own living than to be supported in 
idleness by the labors of others. The question 
used to be, not whether women should be made to 
work, but whether they should be allowed to 
work. To-day this argument is no longer advanced 
— they work. Not even the tradition and practice 
of the past have made them frown upon labor, 
because they are getting from it the best things 
which this life gives : self-reliance, self-dependence, 
and self-support. Think of seven millions of 
women in our own land living in unproductive 
idleness, and then compare the increased wealth 
and comfort produced by these seven million 



POLITICAL EVOLUTION OF WOMAN 49 

women's hands and brains. In the political field 
alone women are a force that must soon be reckoned 
with. In ten States they are holding the balance 
of power, and could easily give the nomination 
to a Presidential candidate. 

Women have evoluted so that they are now 
recognized as a power. Their ability to take care 
of themselves is daily demonstrated, and still 
many eminent thinkers argue for the old order of 
things, while advanced thinkers declare that 
women should take part in the work of civilization 
outside the home. An American educator, Dr. 
James Walsh, has said, " Whenever a woman has 
forged to the front in educational matters, she 
has fallen back inevitably in the course of a few 
years to doing domestic duty, through the working 
of some unknown biological law." There seems to 
be a biological law, he says, that women who take 
an interest in things outside the home get rubbed 
out. Still women are representing a winning cause, 
and men are not slow to see they must surrender 
to the logic of events. The Boston Herald voices 
its editorial opinion in an acceptable manner when 
it says, "The common-sense thing for the country 
to do, is to recognize Woman's Suffrage as decreed 
by the spirit of the age, whether wisely or not, and 
to adjust itself accordingly." Let nature look on 
all agape, but let woman look to her mentality, 
for to-day she is more than a moral force; a strong 



50 A LITERARY FIND 

individuality only will guide. her in safety over 
the troubled and dangerous places into which she 
has stumbled, in her competition with man. Her 
battle-cry for rights has reechoed around the 
world. 

Man needs no warning to look to his laurels. 
On the threshold of a great and sweeping victory 
and the birth of a new year, let men and women 
stand side by side, and let cooperation, duty, and 
love guide them. 

POLITICS IS THE BUSINESS OF THE 

PEOPLE AND THE DOMAIN OF 

WOMEN AS WELL AS MEN 

Let us apply the whole of this proposition as 
an active principle of political conduct and refuse 
to accept a sex-biased legislation. Man's greatest 
works in history are in ruins because they are only 
intellectual achievements. Why do so many good 
political schemes prove failures? Because the 
right and power of one-half the human race — 
women — are ignored; besides, man's dominion 
over the earth has been based on physical superior- 
ity. In the evolution of affairs man has solved 
all the problems of life alone. The absence of the 
feminine from the governments of the earth has 
been the cause of their most conspicuous failure. 

The refusal to recognize women as individual 
members of society, entitled to the rights of self- 



POLITICS, BUSINESS OF THE PEOPLE 51 

government, has resulted in social, legal, and 
economic injustice to them and has intensified the 
existing economic disturbances throughout the 
world, as a monarchial family is inconsistent with 
a republican State. When woman has her equal 
rights as a citizen, her personal and domestic 
rights will take care of themselves. The time 
is not far distant when the economic and indi- 
vidual interest of women will demand that they 
must have the ballot on the same terms as 
men. 

In entering the business and professional world, 
woman has enlarged her sphere of usefulness. 
That she has in the present history been thrust 
out into the world of commercial competition, 
is a condition she did not make. This entrance 
has been less chosen than forced upon her; but 
it is through these activities that she is learn- 
ing her larger duty toward herself, society, and 
the world. In the colleges she is proving her 
quality of intellect, taking the highest honors in 
direct competition with men. By means of her 
study club and other avenues of information, 
which are now open to even married women, 
she is becoming better posted as to moral and 
political needs of the people, better perhaps than 
a majority of men who exercise the privilege of 
voting. 

The nineteenth century was a century of the 



52 A LITERARY FIND 

women's clubs and the fair beginning in the direc- 
tion of equal rights. Although woman has invaded 
nearly every industrial field and avenue, she has 
had to fight for every inch of vantage-ground thus 
obtained. The effect of cooperation of women of 
all shades of belief and kinds of effort has been 
exceedingly beneficial. 

In the unsentimental atmosphere of the relent- 
less commercial world, woman grows broader and 
becomes more tolerant to all mankind. The 
American woman is quite as capable of having a 
voice in the body politic as foreign-born men, 
who by due process of the law may become full- 
fledged citizens. Instead American women are 
disfranchised, being perpetual minors and per- 
petual aliens, and native-born women subjects in 
free America and foreign-born men sovereigns in 
their adopted country. When we see this tre- 
mendous foreign balance of power coming into 
our Government, does it not stir us to ask that 
American women at last be given the franchise? 
For native-born women to be ruled by their own 
nationality is humiliating enough, but to live in 
subjection to the men of foreign countries, void 
of the first principles of our free institutions, is 
surely a degradation too dire to submit to without 
earnest protest. 

The enfranchisement of women means more than 
merely casting a ballot: it means they can have 



POLITICS, BUSINESS OF THE PEOPLE 53 

a voice in the legislation and prevent such dis- 
crimination. 

The economic pressure which has driven millions 
of women into the industrial field is a condition 
which must be met. We believe that those that 
cannot subscribe to the doctrine of equal rights 
should be willing to hear and learn what the 
women believe; and one thing they do believe: 
that the American woman should be granted all 
the rights now possessed by the American man. 
The present economic phase is one of inevitable 
transition, for the brainy and energetic women 
are reaching outside the precincts of home and 
taking a responsibile part in controlling the condi- 
tion of education and the industries. We do not 
argue in favor of suffrage for women because we 
expect the millennium to arrive when it comes, 
but on the grounds of justice and expediency. 
Women to-day are facing new conditions. They 
come in contact with the world as they never 
used to, and they need the same weapon of de- 
fence that man has found so useful. The ques- 
tion to-day is not whether women want the fran- 
chise, but how it shall be secured to them. And 
in these days, when there are to be vital politi- 
cal changes made in the Constitution of Ohio, 
let us see to it that the rights of women are not 
ignored. 



54 A LITERARY FIND 

THE YIDDISH DRAMA * 

In order to understand the Yiddish drama we 
must understand the people, their environments, 
and their enthusiasm and zeal for the sacred 
heritage — the Jew his religion. Rabbi K. Kohler, 
President of the Hebrew Union College, says, "As 
the Bible unified the world, so does the Jew every- 
where represent cosmopolitan humanity." There- 
fore, the Yiddish drama is the drama that means 
something, that tells a story, the story of the 
persecuted Jew. 

The plays are not beautiful gems that sparkle 
with the radiance of a pure opal, but the mournful 
wail of the wood-pewee, for much of the sadness 
and tragedy of life enter into the Yiddish drama. 
Even in their land of love, Jerusalem, the soft 
blue light of the sapphire is absent. The man or 
woman with a poetic or prophetic turn may see 
in the development of this drama a new queen of 
literature. As in the " Arabian Nights," one reads 
of the marvellous things done by the enchantress, 
so in this drama one sees the heroic struggle, the 
story that no tongue can adequately tell, the 
intensity of suffering, realism depicted and vivified 
through the dramatic vigor of a Kalish, an Adler, 
a Lipzen, a Tomas Schifsky, who are conceded to 
be the leading tragedians of the Yiddish stage of 

* This essay was delivered at The Woman's Press Club of Cincinnati, 
Ohio, January, 1912. 



THE YIDDISH DRAMA 55 

the world. But eminent Jewish writers say that 
this drama is a transitory literature rather than the 
birth of a new literature. Perhaps the joy and 
exuberance of the life of the Ghetto Jew have been 
too often marred by the tragedy of racial religious 
persecution. Their song of the soul grows more 
mature, more serious and heavy, with a longing 
for a free and unrestricted manhood, not in a land 
of promise, but in a land of fulfilment. 

Rabbi David Phillipson defines Yiddish thus, 
"It is a Hebrew and German into which Slavish 
terms and even American words are creeping in, 
a jargon." Dr. Gotthard Deutsch defines it as 
"a dialect of Hebrew and German, interspersed 
with Slavish, Polish, Russian, and English terms." 
We have here a direct disagreement between two 
Rabbinical scholars of note, one dignifying the 
Yiddish by calling it a dialect, the other with 
equal candor calling it a jargon, the Ghetto 
language of the Jew. The Jew being cut off from 
the world lost his native language, claims Rabbi 
Phillipson, so some of them adopted the Yiddish 
Deutsch, the language of the Ghetto. If Yiddish 
is a jargon, then we may claim that there are two 
Yiddish jargons; one with German Yiddish and 
Slavish words, and the other with Hebrew, Spanish 
and Portuguese terms, this latter dialect being 
mostly used in the Orient. And the remarkable 
thing is that Yiddish has preserved in its purity 



56 A LITERARY FIND 

some high old German, Spanish and even French 
terms, which are no longer in current use. 

Drama is a much abused word. Much that passes 
for dramatic art is sentimental rubbish, a process 
of stage disturbances and clap-trap without re- 
adjustment to life, but real drama, says the critic, 
is the backbone of the theatre; it is always current 
and successful when it rings true, be it Yiddish or 
Welsh. 

Rabbi Rhine, of Hot Springs, Arkansas, in his 
book, " Secular Hebrew Poetry of Italy," mentions 
why the drama did not flourish among Jews. The 
Greek and Roman drama was originally of a 
religious nature and accompanied by orgies the 
Hebrews despised as a species of idolatrous wor- 
ship. During the Middle Ages when Jewish exist- 
ence was so precarious, though the theatre had been 
purified under Christian influence and was really 
biblical in its nature, Jewish dramatic performances 
were out of the question; moreover, the insults 
heaped upon the Jews by the clowns and com- 
edians of the stage and the humiliations they 
were exposed to, especially during carnival days 
in Rome, did not tend to diminish the hatred of 
the Jew toward theatrical performances. 

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, with the 
development of the drama into the miracle play, 
Jewish prejudice against the stage gradually dis- 
appeared. " Suffering is the badge of all my tribe/' 



THE YIDDISH DRAMA 57 

says Shy lock. This people had suffered and much 
of suffering enters into their plays. Yiddish acting 
requires a performer who is both a realist and a 
romanticist, as realism alone would be unable to 
create the effects which many of the Yiddish 
dramatists demand; notably Gordon, whose 
plays are said to border on the melodramatic 
touched with much that is lurid. An actress of 
the Yiddish drama who would give a realistic 
interpretation that lacked inspiration, like many 
of our American actresses do, would be considered 
an absolute failure, as the true picture designed by 
the playwright was not conveyed to the audience. 

Again I am indebted to Dr. David Phillipson's 
book, "Old European Jewries." The Jew was 
excluded, therefore he became exclusive; he was 
avoided, therefore he became clannish. The hand 
of the world was against him, therefore he sought 
protection against his own. Still the most liberal 
expressions emanate from the Jewish pulpit and 
the pen of Jewish authors. A recent writer has 
well said, "People who have been living in a 
ghetto for a couple of centuries are not able to 
step outside merely because the gates are thrown 
down nor to efface the brands in their soul by 
putting off the yellow badges. The isolation 
from without will have come to seem the law of 
their being." 

Perhaps the most striking product of the Ghetto 



58 A LITERARY FIND 

was the language then spoken. In early days the 
language Jews spoke differed in no wise from that 
of their neighbors, but in time there was formed a 
peculiar speech of the Ghetto, the Judish Deutsch. 
Whatever faith you may be, Catholic, Protestant, 
Jew or pagan, you feel somehow that only from 
such a people as the Hebrews, with all their laws 
and ceremonies intact, with all the sad majesty of 
Sinai in the desert flowing on forever to the eternal 
sea, could such a religion and such a drama as the 
Yiddish emanate. The marvel is that in Russia, 
cold as a flower blossoming in the heart of a cake 
of ice, these remarkable people have developed. 

The awakening of Jewish consciousness in 1870 
started the pens of talented young writers of fiction 
when the Haskalah or progressive movement was 
inaugurated. No phase of Jewish life is more 
wonderful and heroic than the educational Re- 
naissance which thrilled and intoxicated the Jews 
in the seventies, for there was a tale of woe to tell, 
the u Ach! veh mir," Woe is me, or Woe be unto 
me, of the Psalmist. 

In the school of realism great emotion becomes 
vivid actuality. A book of sadness is passive 
tragedy. 

The Yiddish playwright seizes upon some terrible 
or blood-curdling event and depicts it with all the 
realism and horror his frenzied imagination can 
summon. With Kishneff or Kiev before his very 



THE YIDDISH DRAMA 59 

eyes the drama could not be uplifting or inspiring; 
but with the art of a Kalish, it becomes tragic and 
realistic with a realism that perhaps is disastrous. 
The interpretation of the Yiddish Drama requires 
dramatic powers of a peculiar kind. Emotional 
talents of the richest quality are required to suc- 
ceed. Who that has seen her act can forget Sarah 
Bernhardt, who ranked as the leading tragedienne 
of the world for half a century, succeeding the 
famous Rachel whose mantle has now fallen on 
Bertha Kalish, formerly Queen of the Yiddish 
Stage, but who has been called to the American 
Stage, so that to-day the Queens are Madame 
Lipzen and Kaminsky. 

A writer signing himself "Sholom Allechem," 
which translated means "peace be with you," is 
the Mark Twain of Yiddish literature and shows 
that the sense of humor (that pneumatic tire) 
that softens many jars along life's bumpy road is 
not lacking in the Jewish character. 

The best known Yiddish playwrights are: 
Shalom Asch, David Pinski, Jacob Gordon, and 
Abraham Goldfaden. Goldfaden's "Shulamit" is 
very highly praised by the critics. His "Bar 
Kochba" takes rank as one of the best produc- 
tions in Yiddish dramatic circles. Leo Wiener, 
Professor of Slavonic Languages at Harvard 
College, has written a history of Yiddish litera- 
ture, that is considered the best book ever written 



60 A LITERARY FIND 

on the subject. The Jewish Encyclopedia has the 
following : 

"The dramatic part of Yiddish literature has 
had a less independent development than any 
other of its parts, and is consequently poorer, 
both in quality and in quantity. There are 
probably less "than fifty printed Yiddish Dramas, 
and the entire number of written dramas of which 
there is any record hardly exceeds five hundred. 
Of these at least nine-tenths are translations or 
adaptations. The earliest Yiddish Dramas origi- 
nated in Germany. Schudt, in his 'Jud. Merck- 
vurdig Keiten,' tells of a troupe of Judas German 
performers in Frankfort on the Main at the 
beginning of the 18th century of which director 
and regisseur was Baerman Limburg, author of 
the drama 'Mekitat Yosef ' (Sale of Joseph), which 
was played under his supervision. The drama was 
published in the above mentioned city in 1711 
and forms the beginning of Yiddish Drama. 

"Saphiss' farce 'Der Falsche- Kaschtan ' (1820) 
may be mentioned here because it was written 
to criticize Jewish communal affairs, while M. 
Miller's 'Esther' oder 'die Belohnte Tugend' 
(Vienna, 1849), which is also written in German 
but with Hebrew characters, may be cited as one 
of the latest productions not intended for the 
Yiddish-speaking masses. 

"Akenf eld's Dramas mark the beginning of the 



THE YIDDISH DRAMA 61 

Russian Yiddish drama, the main purpose of 
which is the glorification of the 'Haskalah' or 
progressive movement. 

"The real Yiddish drama begins with Goldfaden 
who has not yet been surpassed. When he first 
established a permanent Yiddish Theatre about 
1875 he composed about fifteen farce comedies, 
some entirely original and some adapted from the 
German, but all containing actual Jewish charac- 
ters and excellent caricatures. 'Die Rekruten,' 
' Die Babe mit dem Enikel. . . .' Of his later 
and more serious works, 'Shulamit' and 'Bar 
Kochba' are probably the best two plays in the 
entire Yiddish dramatic literature. They have 
been reprinted many times and translated into 
several European languages. His ' Dr. Alamasada,' 
adapted for German, his 'Konig Ahasuerus' and 
several dramas which he wrote while in New York 
are still favorites with both actors and public." 
Another of the earliest written of Yiddish dramas 
is Ossip M. Lerner's, who among other translators 
has finished a very good one of Gutzkous' " Uriel 
Acosta." 

Several actors like Tomas Schifsky and Feinan 
have also written plays, but none has succeeded 
as well in America as Rudolph Marks, author of 
"Hayyim," "Der Bowery Tramp," etc., who has 
given the Yiddish stage some of the cleverest 
adaptions of American character plays. 



62 A LITERARY FIND 

" Jacob Gordon, who has written for the New 
York stage since 1891 is somewhat above the 
average of Yiddish playwrights. His adaptation 
'Der Judische Konig Lear' and its counterpart 
'Mirele Efort' and some other of his twenty odd 
pieces have produced a strong though hardly a 
lasting impression." "L. Korrin and B. Gorin 
have written several dramatic works which are 
not devoid of literary merit, while D. M. Hermelin 
represents the ultra-realistic school on the Yiddish 
Stage." 

"The real productivity began in New York 
where every well-established Yiddish Theatre has 
its own playwright to provide new plays at short 
intervals." * 

It has been said that they have their Duses and 
Bernhardts on the Yiddish Stage. Madame Kena 
is the star of the Lipzian Theatre in New York 
and interprets the plays written by Jacob Gordon 
with histrionic ability and great dramatic power. 
Madame Kaminsky, her rival, has essayed to star 
in the same play in which Madame Lipzen has 
made a hit, but the patrons of the Yiddish Drama 
in New York will not award the laurel wreath to 
Madame Kaminsky. They say that Madame 
speaks staccato and lacks the eloquence of 
Madame Lipzen; besides she has been so long 
acting in Russia where realism has been the con- 

* Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. iv, page 654. 



THE YIDDISH DRAMA 63 

trolling motto that she finds herself unable to 
adopt the art required by the plays of Gordon 
which have acquired their conventional inter- 
pretation at the hands of American Yiddish 
actors. This criticism is an insight into the 
higher methods adopted by the American Yiddish 
Stage over the crude methods of the Russian. 
In Russia the standard of the Jewish theatre is 
much lower than it is in New York for there it is 
said that critics have no material worthy of criti- 
cism while in New York, the critics are excellent 
judges of modern dramatic art. 

Taken all in all the Yiddish Drama may not 
be permanent and may not reflect the highest 
Hebraic civilization, still it is an admirable form 
of entertainment for those who are bound by 
racial ties. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




